In recent developments, the founder of Arbitrum, an Offchain Labs solution, reveals the introduction of Stylus as a potential game-changer for Ethereum Virtual Machines(EVMs). As per a discussion at Korea Blockchain Week, Ed Felten, the Co-Founder of Offchain Labs, stated that the new tool will provide an avenue for more seasoned developers to build on EVMs, which could potentially make EVMs safer.
Stylus, which was introduced to the public on a testnet on August 31, allows developers to build Arbitrum apps using languages like Rust, C, and C++. The tool allows non-Web3 native developers to utilize languages and development tools they are familiar with. This would result in an increased trove of developers building on EVMs using more mature tools. Felten pointed out the higher number of developers that program in Rust compared to Solidity, the language used for building Ethereum smart contracts.
Felten also cites speed as another advantage of using more mature tools. Stylus performs 10 to 15 times quicker for typical computations than the EVM. Felten notes the benefit being that existing code in Rust is already “battle-tested and audited,” which can reduce developmental errors. The tool also comes with an avenue for reducing gas costs, allowing for more complex tasks in a single transaction.
One possible use case Felten sees is performing iPhone-compatible cryptography, which is currently unfeasible due to the high gas cost. The reduction of these costs could pave the way for integrating a crypto wallet on an iPhone, possibly using Apple’s FaceID for transaction authentication, similar to bank card purchases.
In conclusion, Stylus could accelerate project delivery time by reducing the risk of bugs and errors and increasing performance. By using more mature programming languages, developers may have to worry less about optimizing every line of code to the maximum, reducing friction in developing protocols.
Overall, this could catalyze a series of advancements and transformations in the way code is built and optimize on EVMs, leading to a more efficient and robust blockchain ecosystem. The lower gas costs might also reshape the existing dynamics of code building, allowing for more complex and higher performance on-chain operations.
Source: Cointelegraph
